Coatings Tech Conference
March 2015 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 63
The primary obstacle to coatings manufacturers is the lack of
standards on how to test color matches for quality conformance
under the new lamp lights. “
“As the energy efficient lighting industry is currently still in
a technologically developing phase, it seems that it will be some
time before any agreements on the characteristics of modern
lamp light will be reached,” he added. “Guidance will be pro-
vided on creating and/or using illuminant data representative of
these lamps until standards are published.”
The two Mattiello Symposium presenters were Yoshi Ohno,
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) who pre-
sented “Color Characteristics of Solid State Lighting Products
and Metrology Issues” and Loren Whitehead, University of
British Columbia who presented “Understanding the Impact of
LED Lights on Color.”
Other key presentations included Amanda Andrews of
Wacker Chemical Corp., who presented “Silicones Positive
Influences on Exterior Coatings.”
Innovative technologies have increased durability, and the
lifespan of an exterior coating film. “With that said, for ex-
terior coating applications, dirt continues to destroy the ap-
pearance of coatings; which can down grade a consumer’s
approval of the paint,” said Andrews. “Silicones have inher-
ent water repellent properties that increase the films lifespan
in addition to improving the dirt repellency. Thus silicones
increase a consumer’s approval for purchasing, applying, and
admiring their coated objects. This paper focuses on outdoor
exposure testing that verifies the benefits of silicone in archi-
tectural coating applications.”
Andrews said the increase in home remodeling and improve-
ments have spurred the growth of, architectural coatings.
“Consumers rely on the exterior coating to have excel-
lent weather resistance, long term durability and UV pro-
tection that can last on average twenty plus years,” said
Andews. “Consumers desire coatings to have a ‘clean’ ap-
pearance that will decrease the amount of cleaning the
consumer needs to do to maintain the appearance over the
years. Self-cleaning and dirt resistance have become hot
topics. It is not like dirt repellency has always been impor-
tant but in the current climate, it is now extremely crucial.
Paint suppliers are hungry for marketing data, exterior test-
ing, proof of concept on how to increase the dirt repellency
of coatings, and sell their paint as the best dirt repellant
technology. Silicones provide water resistant properties
which reduces the moisture content at the surface. This will
increases dirt repellency. “
Andrews discussed the chemistry of silicones, multiple sili-
cone technologies used in various paint formulations and the
results of outdoor exposure testing with natural dirt collection.
“High Efficiency Sag Control Materials” was presented by
Michael Gessner of Nuplex Resins.
“Novel Sag Control Agents (SCAs) have been developed
based on chiral amines, which are very efficient and are also
able to suppress telegraphed roughness from the substrate,
said Gessner.His presentation covered the morphology, film
flow and leveling, sag resistance, and appearance properties of
these novel SCAs.
Mei Wen, research associate at Axalta Coating Systems pre-
sented “Micro-hardness Testing of Automotive Coatings.” Wen’s
presentation showcased a micro-hardness testing methodol-
ogy developed by Axalta in collaboration with the Institute of
Macromolecular Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic (IMC Prague).
Fast-drying coatings are desired for increasing productivity
in both automotive manufacturing and aftermarket repairs. It’s
often a challenge to understand changes in coatings properties
during the drying and curing processes, but this understanding
is critical for developing fast-drying coatings. Axalta and the
IMC team developed the new micro-hardness testing methodol-
ogy, based on instrumented indentation testing.
“With the micro-hardness testing methods, we can determine
the hardness of a coating system at different stages of the drying
and curing processes, and learn about its gradient as a function
of depth into a coating layer,” explained Wen. “The hardness
obtained is directly related to the coating system, particularly
the curing, drying, network development, and glass transition
temperature increase of clearcoats. This testing methodology
was developed to allow us to quickly and easily evaluate pro-
ductivity of various clearcoats on different basecoats, such as
waterborne and solvent borne basecoats,” Dr. Wen added.
The confernce featured two awards. The Roon Award was
given to “Alkali Soluble Resins and Acrylic Blends: Influence of
ASR Distribution on Latex Film and Paint Properties” by Wenjun
Wu of Arkema. The Gordon Award went to “Computational
Design of Aerospace Coatings” by Erik Sapper, Boeing Research
& Technology.
Upcoming ACA Events
The Coatings Regulations and Analytical Methods Conference
will be held May 19-20 in Cleveland, Ohio. This conference will
offer a forum for professionals concerned with coatings regulations and the analytical methods used for their development.
The conference will provide an opportunity to meet with colleagues, establish new contacts and create new working relationships. For more info: www.paint.org. CW
ACA is a voluntary, nonprofit organization working to advance
the needs of the paint and coatings industry and the professionals who work in it. Through advocacy of the industry and
its positions on legislative, regulatory and judicial issues at the
federal, state and local levels, it acts as an effective ally ensuring that the industry is represented and fairly considered. The
association also devotes itself to advancing industry efforts
with regard to product stewardship, through its signature
Coatings Care resources and focuses on advancements in
science and technology through the its technical conferences
and journals, as well as online training opportunities. For further information go to www.paint.org.
